Tatka

JFY.. on all 12 cruises post reopening there were people with Covid. Oasis,Anthem, Adventure, Enchantment and Liberty. We had it 3 times between two of us. Once together and 1 each of us separately. And once we had bad Noro. I wouldn’t make any conclusions based on this.

We had a very good quality of Wi-Fi on Enchantment (March) and Liberty (May) and not so good on Anthem (January). Oh Anthem it was strange. Connections dropped fast and you had to reconnect often. It was especially strange as Anthem used to be my go to ship for work.

We stopped there three times. First time we had ships excursion: Martha Brae river river rafting. One of the most beautiful excursions we ever done. Area is beautiful, river… very relaxing. I really recommend it also because it’s pretty close to the port. On the way back we visited some nice church Second time it was ship tour to Dunns river falls. Also beautiful, but maybe not for all ages. We (2 45 yo + 25 yo enjoyed it a lot) Third time I decided we need to be more adventurous there as we always do in other places. We left port area to catch a taxi. Town outside was very rundown and sketchy .. and I even started feeling a bit scared (my husband laughed at me and my so called adventurousness). He asked me not to worry, negotiated good taxi price to Montego Bay and off we went. Overall a very good experience. I probably shouldn't have worried so much as there were many policemen … Rundown doesn’t always mean dangerous.

Only one internet on board. If you need it for every day I recommend buying it as a package before. Daily cost is about $28 a day, which if you buy for multiple days will be on average $21 for longer cruises. If you have D or D+ discounts (1 or 2 days… or 2/4 days for a couple) you may save save something on shorter cruises, but if not precruise packages are cheaper

What is correct amount considering that most crew does not live in EU? RCI just like most other cruise lines collects autobiographies separately because they do not count toward profit so they are not subject of taxes. This allows to pay higher salaries to crew than if it was a part of fare. Win-win for cruisers too IMHO.

As I said rules must be checked. Cruiselines even offered packaged lunched. So I proposed checking rules. Just taking food from the ship if it is not prohibited is not smuggling by any means.

Vision class insides don’t have fridges.

I hope The Billboard Band (Cancun) returns even though we sailed with them twice in 2022 and 2023. They are so amazing and energetic.

But why? It is like somebody is asking if he/she can sing karaoke. And opinion: I never understood people who want to sing karaoke, when they can dance? 🙂

Only Spectra's requires reservations, but it is shown so many times during a cruise you can get in. Do not forget there is a second floor (a balcony) of two70 which is less popular. There are no new shows that I am aware off.

Why do you need to understand other people preferences? If action breaks some laws or rules it is one thing, otherwise it is a pure judgment of other people preferences for which they can have perfectly reasons. For example tight time and wishing to fit more things into it. Some people do not understand why others travel in inside staterooms, others why people travel in balconies. Some people do not understand why people cruise or do not cruise. 🙂

Smuggling off? What a wording… Unless there are specific rules against it… it’s not smuggling at all. And yes, there are prepackaged food one can take off the ship and some excursions offer.

As embarkment gift in your cabin. Not in DL.

It is only natural that with higher number of cruisers reach level benefits cannot be at the same level. Can you imagine overcrowded Suite Lounge with all D+ ? We are completely fine with it. We just take d'oeuvres and use our drink and find some place near large windows. In VCL for example or somewhere else. We do 11 dayer to Southern Caribbean in January, 12 dayer to Southern Caribbean in March, 7 dayer to Bahamas in May/June, 9 dayer to New England/Canada in September and 7 day cruise to Bahamas on Thanksgiving.

In comparison to Royal even most mass market pales. Luxury and near luxury lines have different priorities. I never sailed on Viking, but many of my friends and family do sail.

I don’t know. We are only D+ , but we enjoy RCI. Honestly we were not loyal, but benefits that come with their program are nice. Viking may be nice, but they don’t have so many ships we can reach easily.. and entertainment isn’t as good. Maybe for occasional trip they will work, not for 5 a year.

We are reaching 30th cruise (280+ nights) with RCI this year 61th overall and it is still very important for us. It was not the only reason why we switched to sailing with RCI almost exclusively, but it was important reason.

We cruise from Bayonne and Baltimore and usually sign up for 10:30 (earliest) boarding. It is usually a breeze anyway for all.

Every review is a bit like equation with multiple variables or parameters. You don’t know who writes it, why, how truthful are statements. Just think of it.

If you book 10 cruises for next several years do you still want to tie them all? It is not a matter of not having money for us. It is just money can be working for us differently. Google have pretty good scheduler as some other apps.

Yes. We make it 2 weeks before due date. Not sooner than two weeks because: Not to keep money tied. To have time to make adjustments if needed without waiting for refunds Not later than two weeks because: To have make sure sure payment goes through.

You cannot stop something that was requested. (Icon was requested long time go). Besides more ships in a future lower prices (supply - demand). If people cannot/won't pay prices will come down. It is always like this. Simple.

Quantum class for amazing Solarium and Indoor pool (we should see how Odyssey without Indoor pool will work out) Smaller classes for Viking Crown Lounge. (especially ships that have Boleros)

I am not a pizza gourmand and trying to avoid pizza due to high calories intake (and my husband long time ago had a side job with pizza deliveries so he cannot even look at pizza), but we absolutely loved Primavera Pizza on Liberty in May! It was probably the second best pizza or even equal in quality to one we ate while visiting Italy (that one was not Primavera, but consisted of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella) We basically binge on that Primavera several times. 🤣

We do little tailgate parties before boarding so by the time we board mental state is pretty good. 🙂 No, we do not go overboard (no pun) with celebrations.